Beneath the Shadows
by Kisara B
Summary: Meet Arthur, a hunter, whose job is to prevent humans from knowing about magical creatures. Meet Alfred, a vampire, tracking down the demon that cursed him. Together these two will join forces to take down the demon that wants everything to become "ONE".
1. Chapter 1

****These characters in no way belong to me****

**I want to thank Ai-Sama for beta-ing my story :)**

Chapter 1 - Prologue

Dark clouds fill the daytime sky as the rain fell down heavily. Young, twin boys, splashed through the puddles and navigated through the forest, running for their lives. The elder twin has short blond hair, with one strand that defies gravity. While the younger twin has shoulder length blond hair, that has a strand that curls down in front of his face. They both are wearing dirty, tatter clothing.

Suddenly the older boy stops and turns around to take a look. His brother takes notice and stops as well.

"We can't stop now! He's going to catch us, eh!" exclaimed the younger boy.

The older boy turns to his brother.

"Ah don't worry so much, bro! I'm a hero, and that means I'm gonna protect you."

The older boy flashed a bright smile and a thumbs up towards his brother. A large crash is heard and the two turn to see trees falling not too far behind them.

"Eh! We need to get away from here before the eclipse!" the young boy shouted.

"Alright, bro, let's get goin!" the older boy said as he grabbed his brother's hand.

The boys start to run again. More crashes could be heard and more trees started to fall. Shadows crept along the forest floor, following the young boys.

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Well that's it for now. I hope you liked it and I will try to upload the next chapter soon.

Please R&R. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok so here is Chapter 2 :)**

**Sorry it took longer than I expected. **

**Again I would like to thank Ai-Sama for beta-ing my chapter :D **

**And I want to thank all of you who fav'ed, story alerted, and a thank you goes out to TheNinjaWangsta and Dorisling for reviewing. **

**And once again, I own nothing but the story plot.**

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Chapter 2

Deep in a city, rain was pouring down on a young, British hunter, who was running through the streets, following his target. The target, tonight, was a flying, mint-green bunny, and for its size it moved pretty fast through the alleyways. The hunter was having trouble keeping up, that was until his target went into a dead end alleyway. The bunny tried to fly up over the wall, but the hunter was able to cast a freezing spell to stop the creature.

The bunny turned towards the hunter and said, "Ah! Please don't hurt me!"

The hunter just glared at the creature. "It is too dangerous for you to be wandering around the city. Normal humans should not know about the existence of magical creatures. Now, no more questions."

He drew a magic circle around the mint-green bunny and began to chant. After a few moments the bunny disappeared, having been locked in a dimensional prison for easier transportation back to headquarters.

The hunter sighs, walks over to a door way with an awning to get out of the way, and pulls out his cell phone.

"Hello. Who is calling?" The hunter heard the voice through his phone. _Oh, please don't let this be who I think it is…_

He answers, "This is Arthur, checking in. The target has been captured, and locked in the dimensional prison."

"Ah! It is the _great_ Angleterre. As expected, you never fail a mission."

"OH! Shut it, you bloody frog!"

Francis laughs. "Well if you really want me too, but then you won't find out about the next mission." He chuckles.

Arthur growls into the phone. "Tell me what it is, Beardy!"

"Alright, alright. Why do you always have to be grumpy?" Francis sighs, "This next mission is in the town north of you. There seems to be a large amount of ghosts…"

Suddenly there was a loud beep over the phone. "What was that?" asked Arthur.

"Oh, looks like we just received a new mission. A powerful creature has appeared, and it looks like you're the closest one to it. The location is about 15 miles south of where you are now." Francis explained.

"I will head over there right away, and No! I don't want the help of an idiot like you."

"Ok. I will let the higher ups know, just be sure to check in more often," said Francis.

"Fine," Arthur said as he shuts his phone and heads towards the location of his next mission.

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**Please R&R :)**


	3. Chapter 3

_***Sorry for not updating sooner, I was having some computer issues ^^;**_

**Thank you to everyone who has Fav'ed/Alerted and especially Reviewed. :D**

**And then a Thank you to Ai-Sama for beta-ing my chapter ;)**

****As much as I would love to, I do not own any of these characters****

_Italicized_ **are thoughts.**

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Chapter 3

Arthur, clad in a heavy trench coat, arrives at the location; just as the storm clouds clear up and reveals the sun that is a couple hours from setting. He walks through an old gate, and comes up to a run-down mansion. _Well, it's time to begin the search. The sooner this gets done the better. _Arthur thinks to himself. He goes into the mansion and begins his search.

-3 hours later-

"THAT WAS A COMPELETE WASTE OF TIME!" Arthur yells, as it echoes throughout the empty mansion. "THERE IS NOTHING HERE! That blasted frog! I'm going to ring his neck as soon as I see him! A powerful creature, HAH!" Arthur storms towards the front door.

"I wish there was something here, like a demon or maybe a vampire. Then MAYBE I could have some sort of challenge." Arthur reaches the doorway and looks out the window and sees that the sun is close to setting. He then turns around to give the foyer of the house one last look. About to turn away, he sees in the corner of his eye a shadowy figure zoom into a room across the foyer.

"Ah, there is something here. Well, at least this trip is getting interesting." Arthur says as he runs after the shadow, and enters a very dusty library. In the library there were many shelves of books that looked even older than the mansion and quite a few pieces of furniture with sheets hanging over them.

"So you think you can hide from me, huh?" Arthur starts pulling off all of the sheets and overturning the furniture, but finds nothing. He takes the last sheet, frustrated, and balls it up and throws it across the room yelling, "Gah! Where did it GO?" He turns to walk out of the room, and he sees the shadow dash out from behind a space between the wall and bookcase, and back into the foyer. Again, Arthur follows it and as he makes his way out of the library, he sees the shadow zoom up the staircase and assumes that it went into one of the bedrooms upstairs.

He enters the first room, overturns every bit of furniture in it and searches the closets only to find nothing. Leaving that room, he looks across the handrail onto the first floor to see if he sees the shadow, yet again finding nothing. The hunter turns his head and sees one of the doors of the bedrooms close just slightly, and takes off to go into the room. Upon entering the room, he immediately flips over the bed. Hearing a noise behind him, Arthur sees the shadow almost fly out of the room.

"BLAST IT ALL! QUIT RUNNING YOU BLOODY WANKER!" Arthur yells at the shadow as he follows it out of the room and down the staircase. Just as Arthur reaches the bottom step, the shadow runs toward another room and as soon as it had reaches the middle of the room, it disappears with a yell. Arthur slowly crept up to the spot to see a hole in the middle of the floor and as he peered down it he saw a young boy.

Arthur backs away from it thinking, _WHAT? A BOY?_ And then peers into the hole again. The blond haired boy looks up at him. Arthur stares at him, falling into a stupor. _What in the world happened to the creature and why is a boy here?_

"Uh…Hello, up there." Innocent blue eyes looked up at him, "Can you help me out of here?"

Snapping his head up, Arthur says, "Oh, quite right, I will be right back with a rope."

He backs away from the hole for a moment and chants a spell, summoning a rope long enough to reach the boy. And then he tossed one end down into the hole.

"Grab on to the rope and I will pull you out lad!" Arthur yelled down to the boy.

"Alright," was the response.

After a few moments, the young boy was out of the hole and standing next to his rescuer. The boy shifts from one foot to another.

"Thank you," he says with a bright smile.

While patting the child on the head, Arthur says, "You're quite welcome."

"OH! By the way my name's Alfred. What's yours?"

"I'm Arthur. It is nice to meet you. Now what are you doing here? It is quite dangerous here."

With another smile, Alfred says, "Oh, well we came here lookin for somethin to do."

"We?"

Alfred nods his head, "Yep, me and my lil bro. OH! YEAH! HEY, MATTIE IT IS OK TO COME OUT NOW!"

Coming out of the room Alfred was previously headed towards, came his brother Matthew. The younger twin joined his brother and the hunter. Both, Alfred and Matthew are wearing average clothes: sneakers and blue jeans. Alfred has red and blue shirt, while Matthew has a red and white shirt. Suddenly, Matthew starts pulling on his brother's sleeve and they whisper to each other as they move away from Arthur. After a few moments, Arthur, becoming impatient, folded his arms and started tapping his foot while waiting for the twins.

Alfred turns his head towards Arthur, and practically yells, "Hey Artie!"

At this Arthur winces, and tries his best to say as calmly as possible, "Alfred, please call me Arthur. Not Artie."

"Uh…Ok... Oh! Hey! I gotta question! Why are you carrying around so many books and weird stuff in your jacket?" Alfred asked, opened up Arthur's trench coat to get a better look at what was in it.

Arthur explains, "They are magic books and such that I need for my job. You see, I'm, well, how shall I put this. I'm kind of like a policeman. I use magic to catch dangerous villains and magical creatures."

At this, Alfred's eyes began to shine, "Magic? Really? So cool! And you catch bad guys, too? Just like a hero, right? Awesome! Hey, did you know that I'm a hero too!" Alfred ended with a 100 watt smile, causing Arthur to chuckle a little.

Matthew started to pull on Arthur's sleeve, catching him by surprise. _What the…When did he get there?_

"I have a question, too. Um… Why is it you came here? Were you looking for a bad guy, for your job? Do you think that we are the bad guys?" Matthew softly whispers.

"What? Yes, I came here for my job, but why would think that children like you are the villains?" Arthur says, as he bends down and places his hand on Matthew's head.

"Huh? OH! Yeah! That's right, Mattie! We are just kids! There's no way that we could possibly be the ones he's lookin for!" Alfred exclaims.

_Hmm… The way he said that was a little odd. _Arthur thought, but let it slide and said, "Alright boys, we should get out of here before it gets dark, we would want your parents to get worried."

Arthur started to head towards the front door, but noticing that the boys were not following him. He turned to see Alfred's head down, and Matthew, close to crying. Arthur jumped and said, "What's wrong? Are you both alright?"

Alfred looks up at Arthur, "Our parents are gone. We have been alone for a long time."

Arthur jumped a little in surprise and said, "Oh, my apologies." _Poor things, I wish I could help them….hmm…_ _OH!_ "Well boys, how about both of you come with me. That way you won't be alone anymore." Arthur said with a smile.

The twins looked up at him and nearly shouted, "Really?"

Arthur nods his head.

"YAY!" Alfred yells, and runs toward Arthur and tackle hugs him. This causes them to go through the front door and on to the porch floor, just in time to see the sun set completely and the moon start to rise into the sky.

_Ouch… _"You're a lot stronger than you look, lad." Arthur says as he looks down. But instead of seeing a boy, he sees…. _WHAT THE BLOODY HELL!_

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Lookie a cliffy :D

**Sorry I had to do it. It was just so dang tempting XD**

**I will update as soon as I can, so please be patient.**

**Please Read and Review. If you don't you will make little Mattie cry, and big brother Alfred will make you cuz he's the HERO! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok, so this update took a lot longer than I originally thought. **

**Thank you for your patience, and for all of the story fav's, alerts, and reviews. **

**Thank you so much to Ai-Sama for your help :D**

_Italicized _**are thoughts**

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Chapter 4

Just as the sun sets and the moon rises to take its place, a little Alfred tackle hugged Arthur onto the porch of the old mansion.

_Ouch, that hurt. _"You know, I'm glad that you were excited but you didn't have to…" Arthur looks down, but instead of finding a young boy, he sees an older teen in his place. _WHAT?_ Arthur thought.

The teen looked to be about 19 years old, and was wearing similar clothes to young Alfred.

"Hey there, Artie." The teen says with a smile, and it was then that Arthur saw a pair of fangs. _A vampire!_ were the words that went through the hunter's mind. Arthur pushes him off and jumps up, preparing to hit him with a lightning spell, but was suddenly hit from behind and forced to his knees. His hands were then brought behind his back and tied. Arthur turned his head and saw a teenaged version of Matthew.

"Sorry about this. But you wouldn't have listened to us otherwise." Matthew said as he was walking towards his brother.

Irritated, Arthur says, "So this is how you vampires seduce your victims? By looking like children during the day and then taking advantage of them at night? !"

"Huh? Seduce people? You've got the wrong idea, Artie. We don't do that sorta thing. I told you, I'm a hero, and heroes don't hurt people." Alfred replies.

"Oh, really? Then tell me how you get the blood you need to survive?" Arthur counters, snidely.

"We ask. Duh, Artie." Alfred says, putting his hands on his hips and brings his face close to Arthur's.

"Get out of my face, you bloody twit! Stop calling me Artie! It is ARTHUR!" Arthur yells, trying to kick Alfred away and having a visible tick mark on his face. "Besides, who in the world would give blood to monsters like you?"

Matthew stiffened. Alfred went right back into Arthur's face, their noses touching. His eyes turned blood red and bared his fangs, when he said, "Monsters? We ain't the monsters here, Artie… there's only one real monster and that is the shadow demon who cursed us."

This caused Arthur to jump slightly.

Sighing, Alfred stands straight up and backs away from Arthur, and began their story. "That demon… Well the beginning is a good place to start. Huh?"

Matthew looks at them both, "Well, we should first start off with the fact that our parents and the both of us are pureblooded vampires. This means that we have more power than other vampires do. And that demon wanted to use this power. When our parents refused to help…"

"Well you already know what happened to them." Alfred finishes. "As for us, he kept chasin us until we flat out refused him, and well, you see, we gots cursed and all."

Arthur lowered his head, feeling slightly bad for what he had said.

"And now just to prove that I'm a good guy, I'm going to get to tell you ALL about my exploits as the awesome HERO that I am! HA, HA, HA!"

Arthur looked up at him and glared. _Oh, just my luck…_ he thinks and sighs.

- One hour later –

"Mattie, here was my side-kick and was totally awesome sneakin up, and scarin him and then I was able to get in front of him and stop the bad guy and help the young lady." Alfred rambled on and on. Occasionally, Alfred would point over to Matthew, who just remained silent, while Alfred was recounting his amazing heroic stories.

_OH! BLOODY HELL! Does he ever just SHUT UP! I think I'm going to go insane at this rate… _Arthur thought angrily. _I need to get out of these ropes, just so I can punch that wanker and get some peace and quiet for at least a moment._ Arthur takes a deep breath and thinks: _ok, now think…_

"And then there was the time that I heroically saved a damsel from a burning building." Alfred continues on.

Arthur looks at Alfred for a moment. _He saved a woman from a fire, isn't there anyth… Oh god, why didn't I think of that sooner._ Arthur drops his head for a second and then closes his eyes to concentrate. He begins to whisper a chant and in his hands appears a small flame that begins to burn the ropes.

"Oh? Alfred, do you smell something burning?" Matthew asked, as he looked around.

"Hmm? Now that you mention it…" Alfred replied also looking around. Alfred turns to Arthur, just as the ropes snap. Arthur jumps to his feet and begins another chant. Alfred charges at him in order to subdue him again, but was too late. Arthur finished his spell and a gust of wind nocks Alfred and Matthew back to the ground. Arthur begins to chant another spell, but before he completes it, because he is suddenly surrounded by vines. He looks over to the twin vampires and they are also surrounded as well.

"You know it's not very smart to get caught in your own spell." Alfred laughs, while looking at Arthur.

"This is not my magic!" Arthur yells back. Growling, he adds, "Who is doing this…?"

Off of the different vines, buds start to appear and they turn into roses.

Seeing this, Arthur realizes who it is and yells, "Francis, you damn wino, get out here now and release me!"

Stepping out from the nearby shadows, Francis appears. The man has shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes, and a little bit of stubble for a beard. He has a very gaudy but modern look, a brown overcoat with a blue shirt underneath, a pair of red pants, and black boots. As he walked forward, towards Arthur, rose petals were raining down and making a pathway for him to walk on.

"I SAID TO LET ME GO, BEARDY!" Arthur yelled again.

"Now, Angleterre, it isn't very polite to yell and call someone names, when you want to be released." Francis calmly replies, as he reaches Arthur and pats him on the cheek. "Do you promise that you aren't going to go and attack anyone? Only then will I release you," Francis smiles.

Arthur growls again, turn his head away, and close his eyes in frustration. "Fine."

Francis smiles brighter, and snaps his fingers. At the sound, the vines disappear from view.

Finally released, Arthur asks, "So what are you doing here, Francis?"

Putting a hand on his hip, and raising the other to point up towards nothing in particular, he replies with another smile, "Oh, I just came here to rescue the damsel in distress from the little vampire twins you encountered."

Arthur stopped and glared at Francis, a bright fire in his eyes, and said, "What did you just say?" His fists begin to shake at his sides.

_Oh, this isn't good_, Francis thought and then replied out loud, "I said that I came here to rescue the damsel in distress from…"

Arthur balls up his fists and aimed to hit Francis in the face but was stopped by some of the vines.

Francis wags his finger in front of Arthur and winks. "Oh no you don't, Angleterre. You promised that you weren't going to attack anyone, and that means me too."

"IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO ATTACK THAN DON'T CALL ME A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS, YOU STUPID FROG!"

Francis chuckles a little towards Arthur and then turns towards the vampires. "We need to have a little chat, mes amis. Angleterre may not have realized, but his phone has been transmitting most of the conversation between all of you and it seems that our bosses know a great deal about the both of you, to begin with. And I also found out that the shadow demon you were talking about is causing a lot of problems in the south."

Meanwhile, Arthur continues to struggle against the vines binding him. "Get me out of these!"

Ignoring Arthur, Francis continues, "Now, we need your help. So, the boss has decided that Arthur and I will partner up with you and will split into groups of two to search for this monster. Will you help us?"

Alfred turns to his brother, "What do ya say, Mattie? Should we help em?"

Matthew nodded his head and replied, "Sure, we need to stop him."

Clapping his hands together, Francis says, "Merci beaucoup, well we should get going right away!" Francis walks over to the twins and made the vines release them. He helps Matthew up and starts to drag him away. As he is walking away, he says, "Oh, Arthur, I will be taking Mathieu with me. You get the other one."

"WHAT! I don't want him! This one's going to drive me completely batty, with all of his ridiculous stories." Arthur yelled back.

"Awww, too bad, Angleterre. Au revoir!" And with that he and Matthew disappear from view.

"HEY! Get back here and get these vines off of me, you wanker!"

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**Please Read & Review. **

**I will update as soon as possible. **

**Finals and last minute papers are coming up soon, so it might be be a bit before I'm able to update again.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it has been so long since the last update. Life and work caught up with me. :/ and it also didn't help that I had a mini writers block about half-way through.**

**So in exchange I made this chappy a lot longer. :D I hope you enjoy.**

**Thank you to all of those who reviewed and fav'ed since the last chapter.**

**And another big thanks to Ai-Sama for beta-ing and helping me get through the block :D**

_Italicized_ **are thoughts**

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Chapter 5

"HA! HA! HA! That was really funny, huh, Artie?" Alfred laughed as he and Arthur were leaving the old mansion. "Man, that guy was a little weird with all of his rose petals. But at least he was able to stop you from your little anger melt-down."

"No! It was not funny! That stupid git! The next time I see him, I will ring his neck out!" Arthur snapped. He stomped ahead for a few moments. "And I was not having an anger melt-down!"

"Aww, come on. Lighten up a little, buddy." Alfred said as he swung his arm over Arthur's shoulder. "We're gonna have to work together, so don't be such a stick in the mud. And besides, you could try to be a little nicer to me, since I was able to get you untied from all those vines that the Frenchy dude left you in."

"Now, you listen here. Just because you got me out of that does not mean that I have to like you, so don't call me buddy! The only reason that I'm even here with you is because I called and made sure with my bosses that there is indeed a mission that requires your help. And it wasn't a stupid idea that Francis came up with just to run off with someone and slack off. Now, let's hurry up to the station, I don't want to miss the next train to Ezra." Arthur stated in a huff, and again goes ahead without waiting for Alfred.

Alfred sighs and jogs a little. Then he swings his left arm around Arthur's shoulders and pokes Arthur's face with his right hand. "Don't be like that, Artie. This can be an awesome and fun adventure if you wanted it to."

"Stop calling me Artie! My name is Arthur! Don't make me tell you again, twit. Now just shut up and let's get this over with." Arthur shouted. Alfred sighed again, and said nothing back. "Now hurry up, and let's get out of here."

- Train -

After arriving just in the nick of time for the last train of the night, Arthur and Alfred settle down into one of the private cabins. Arthur, trying to ignore anything and everything that may come out of Alfred's mouth, sits down and turns his head to watch the scenery pass by.

Noticing that he was going to be ignored, Alfred decided to sit right next to Arthur; hoping to get the hunter's attention and on his good side. _If he even has one_, thought Alfred.

Arthur glances at Alfred for a moment, when he sees the young looking man sit next to him. _It is never a good thing when an idiot grins like that…_ he thought, as he turns his attention back to the nighttime scenery, but Alfred has other plans for him.

"Hey, I have a question for you," Alfred began.

"What is it?" Arthur replied, turning to face him.

Alfred pokes Arthur's eyebrows. "Why do you have such bushy eyebrows? Do you use your magic to make 'em bigger? Or did they just come out that way?" he asked, tilting his head off to the side, his eyes sparkling with wonder.

Looking as if he is going to strangle the vampire teen, Arthur tried to calmly, but slightly not succeeding, answered, "No… I do NOT use magic to make them like this…" he makes a barely heard growl and closes his eyes, "Now be quiet and leave me alone." And with that he turns away.

Alfred, not to be one to accept the silence as the end of the conversation, tries again.

"Hey! Magic man, I'm bored! " Alfred begged, as he began to rock back and forth on the seat.

Arthur quickly snapped his head to Alfred, "Wha…Magic man? What the bloody hell…"

"Yeah, well you don't like to be called Artie, so I'm gonna call you magic man, cuz you use magic, makin it the perfect nickname for you." Alfred smiles brightly.

Arthur growled and then shouted, "Don't you ever call me that! If you are going to talk to me use my name, not some ridiculous nickname!"

Holding his hands up in defeat, Alfred says, "Awwww. Ok. Ok. Fine. But in exchange you have to play with me instead." Clapping his hands together, he continues with, ". Pretty, pretty please."

"Absolutely not! Now bugger off." Arthur quickly replied, as he turned back to the window again, waving his hand towards Alfred.

"Awww, come on! Please, please, please, please…" Alfred continues, and every time he had said please he poked Arthur in various places on his body.

"Stop it! Go sit over there! You don't have to be right next to me!" Arthur responded, as he grabbed Alfred's arms harshly and forced the vampire onto the seats across from him.

"But I'm ! I want you to entertain me." Alfred begs again, going back to the seat that Arthur is on and started to bounce up and down.

Arthur comes back with, "Entertain you? ! Pray tell, why should I do that?"

"Because ya have nothin else to do, other than starin at stuff outside the window, but that's bbbboooorrrriiiiinnnggg and no fun at all! So like I said, play with me. Then neither of us is gonna be bored." Alfred stated.

Arthur's eye twitched as he thought, _his English, my god, it is horrible… _"Well, I would very much just like to look outside. Now if you would kindly just SHUT UP and leave me ALONE!" Arthur shouted, causing Alfred to jump a little.

Sighing, Alfred replies weakly, "Ok, fine." and with that he goes over to the other seat and sits quietly for the rest of the ride.

- Ezra train station -

When the train arrived in the station, Arthur got off of it as fast as he could. _That was frightening… _Arthur closed his eyes and brought one of his hands up to massage his forehead. _When that twit FINALLY shuts up, all he does is stare at me… I think I might prefer the loudmouth Alfred, compared to the silent one, _Arthur thought and sighed. He then looked around to see that there is no one around. _The sun's coming up soon_, Arthur noted, as he saw some of the rays coming from behind a mountain in the distance.

Arthur sighed once again, before turning back towards the train to wait for Alfred. After a few moments, the train started to take off from the platform. _Oh, bloody hell, where is that twit now?_ Arthur asked. He started to look around for Alfred, starting to get a little hopeful that he wouldn't have to see the centuries old teen again, but at the same time feeling a little sad that he will now be alone. _Well this is for the best, _Arthur thought with a nod. Arthur then started to leave the station, when he reached the doorway he felt a tiny hand on his own and stopped. When he looked down, he saw the child form of Alfred and jumped back a little.

"What the…! Why are you a child again? ! Change back this instant!" Arthur shouted.

"But Arthur, I already told you, I'm cursed and this is it. During the time that the sun is in the sky me and Mattie look like kids and our power gets loads weaker. Only at nighttime do we get to be what we really are." Alfred explained impatiently, as he started to bounce from one foot to another.

Arthur sighed, "Well fine! But don't expect me to be nice just because you're a kid."

"I wouldn't expect anything else from you," Alfred responded and whispers, 'magic man.' With that he chuckled a little, causing Arthur to look at him with a slightly confused and irritated look.

"Hurry up and let's get going."

- Ezra - main road -

"Wow, this place is like a ghost town…" Alfred says with a shiver, as he and Arthur walk down towards the inn of the town.

"The people of the town will be just getting up for the day. Just give it another hour or so and the streets should be busier." Arthur stated and stops to look at Alfred. "Now, tell me, what was the shiver for? Don't tell me a big, or rather small, bad vampire, like you, is scared of ghosts."

"W-what are you t-talking about? I'm n-not afraid of n-nothing! Especially, g-ghosts." Alfred responded with a stutter, while trying to avoid looking at Arthur.

Arthur laughs, "HA! You are afraid of them!"

Alfred looks at Arthur and shouts, "WHAT! I just told you I'm not! Besides anyone would be scared of stuff they can't see!" He then shuts his mouth and begins to pout. They continue to walk down the main road, not noticing the shadowy figure that is following them.

- Ezra - Dragon's Ridge Inn -

After a little bit of wondering around, getting a feel for the town, the pair finally reached the inn.

Alfred is constantly on the lookout, because the entire time they walked around, not a soul had shown up on the roads. _I can't believe Artie thinks I'm afraid of ghosts…I'm a hero, and heroes are afraid of nothin. I just hate those things, and their ability to pop out of thin air, and besides that, I've got the feelin that we are bein watched,_ Alfred thought to himself.

Arthur, while observing Alfred, mentally notes, _Hmm. He is being awfully quiet again._ He looks away from the vampire child and sweat drops. _I just hope he doesn't start to stare at me like he did on the train… that was beyond creepy._ Arthur shakes his head to rid himself of those thoughts and then heads toward the door of the inn.

Meanwhile, Alfred begins creep a little so that he can look down the little alleyway next to the inn, which is filled with boxes, barrels, and trash bins. _Hmmmm… looks like nothin in there._ Suddenly a shadow moves from behind some of the boxes. _HUH? What's that?_ Alfred thinks for a moment and nearly screams, "GAHHH!" He then runs and tackles Arthur, and yells aloud, "ARTIE!"

Arthur, trying to recover his composure, responds, "What?"

"I think there is a ghost down there!" Alfred pointed down the alleyway. "I saw something move!"

Arthur sighed and walks up to the alleyway. "Where?"

"In there! Behind some of the boxes!" Alfred nearly shouted while stomping one of his feet onto the ground.

"Alright, I will take a look, just calm down." Arthur responded. He starts to walk down the alley, taking each step slowly.

"Be careful." Alfred said, as he started shifting from one foot to another, while grabbing, pulling, and twisting the bottom of his shirt.

Arthur glanced back to see this and then turned to continue down the alley once again. _He really is afraid._ He then summoned a wand, which has a little star at the end of it, and started to try to poke around and make some small noises to see if anything would pop out.

About halfway through the alley, Arthur turns back to Alfred, "Are you satisfied now, there is nothing down here."

"It is farther in there, I know I saw something. Please keep going." Alfred replied, giving Arthur a teary eyed, sort of pout.

Arthur sighs, turns his head and glares at nothing in particular. _He reminds me of a puppy. I can almost see the ears and tail on him…_ After another sigh, he continues on the search for the "ghost." After tapping the side of a barrel, a shadow jumped out and landed on Arthur's face.

"What the bloody hell? !" He shouted and backed out of the alleyway, struggling to get the shadow off of him. Alfred backs away from the alley's opening and watches as Arthur stumbles out and falls to the ground, as the shadow jumps off of Arthur's face.

"Hey Artie, it looks like it wasn't a ghost after all. It was just a kitty!" Alfred chuckles.

At that remark, Arthur eyebrows started to twitch as a large tick mark appeared on his head. "That is NOT funny! Next time you're going to check it out!"

They both turn to see the cat chasing a baby chick, which ends up running down another alleyway across the road. The cat follows, but then quickly exits and runs down the road. Alfred looks at the direction the cat ran off in, but he also hears a quiet: "Don't worry; the scary cat is gone now. You're going to be ok; I will protect you, Gilbird."

_HUH? What was that?_ Alfred thought as he runs over to the alleyway, but sees nothing, absolutely nothing. _That was weird. I thought I heard someone…AH! What if it was a ghost!_ Alfred thinks, and then runs back over to Arthur and clutches his jacket.

Meanwhile, with a displeased look on his face, Arthur thought, _That baby chick reminds me of an annoying 'co-worker.' Hope I don't have to deal with him anytime soon._ He turns to Alfred, "Alright let's get started, we need to get some information, to see if the demon has done anything in this area."

Alfred nods, "Ok."

They enter the inn, only to find it completely empty.

"Uh… I know it is early but there should be some people up by now… and I still haven't seen anyone outside either." Alfred said, and then realized, "AHHHHH! This is a ghost town, Artie!" Alfred then jumps and clings to Arthur's leg.

"Hey! Get off of me! What happened to 'Mr. Hero' who is afraid of nothing?" Arthur said, while shaking his leg, trying to get the boy off of him, but Alfred's grip only tightens. "Ugh." He then takes a deep breath and says, "Let's look around, there must be someone here. Cats and baby chicks don't live in abandoned towns."

- Ezra - main road -

Arthur hobbles down the road, with Alfred still attached to his leg. He is looking for any sign of life in the village, just to prove that the town isn't haunted. Coming up to a house, he peered inside one of the windows, and he noticed that the people were just sleeping. _Asleep at this hour? That is odd._ Arthur thought. He went to a few more houses and saw that the people in them were also sleeping. _Hmm, this is definitely odd. The only thing I can think of that could do something like this is magic, but I haven't sensed any…Wait a moment, what is... AH! I sense it now! The caster must be too weak to cast a large spell making it harder to detect!_

Looking down at the shivering lump clutching his leg, Arthur says, "Alright, Alfred. This town is not haunted, alright? The people are just asleep. The one who had cast the spell is nearby, but their magic is so weak I can't pinpoint their exact location."

Alfred looks up at him, "Ah! Of course that makes sense. Let's go beat the bad guy up and save the town!" He jumps a couple of times and then pumps his arm. Then in a burst of speed, Alfred bolts off looking for the 'bad guy.'

Arthur sighs, "This boy is really too energetic for his own good." He begins to run to catch up with Alfred. He runs around a couple of corners and comes to a stop to look around. "Now where did he go?"

- Ezra - village gate -

Alfred comes to a stop at the edge of the village, when he notices that Arthur is not following him.

"Artie? Where did ya go?" Alfred tilts his head in confusion, he looks around, but the magician is nowhere to be seen. "I thought you were right behind me."

Alfred slowly starts to walk away from the gate and back into the village, hoping to see his partner. Hearing something behind him, he turns and sees the little baby chick from earlier. "Huh? What are you doing here, little guy?" Alfred says as he walks towards it.

"So there you are, kid who thinks he is more AWESOME than I!" shouted a man, who dashed out from around a nearby corner.

"Huh?" Alfred said in surprise and confusion. He jumped back a little and looked at the new-comer.

The man has silvery-white hair, ruby colored eyes, and pale skin. He is wearing a dark blue trench coat, with a black shirt and dark denim blue jeans underneath it, black leather boots, and black leather gloves.

"Hey! Who the heck are you?" Alfred asked.

"I am the AWESOMELY strong, Gilbert! Monster tamer and hunter extraordinaire! And I have come here to prove that I am more AWESOME than you, little vampire boy!" Gilbert says, pointing at Alfred.

Sweat dropping, Alfred thinks, _Are all hunters this weird? Or am I just so privileged that I get to meet all the crazies? _and then says out loud he says, "What are you talking about?"

"Ok, I'm going to make this simple. If I defeat you, I will get the title of the most AWESOME back! So if you wanna make this easy for yourself, just give up right now!" Gilbert says.

"GIVE UP! Heroes never give up! I'm going to win and maybe I can even prove to Artie that I'm a true hero. Ha! Ha! Ha!" Alfred yells in return.

- Ezra - outskirts -

While Alfred was being challenged by Gilbert, Arthur was completely on the other side of the village looking for his young looking partner. This part of the village mostly consisted of large plots of land, with farm houses, barns, and fields of wheat and corn.

"Where is that bloody, little twit? How dare he! Running off like that!" Arthur shouted, at no one in particular.

Continuing on, he searches for the vampire and the one responsible for the town's sleep spell. He occasionally walks to search in the windows to see if there was anyone that the spell had missed or if it had worn off, but so far there was no one awake. Walking away from one of the houses, he senses something nearby. _What is this feeling? It is almost as if someone is watching me…_ Arthur thought.

"It's been awhile hasn't it…little hunter boy," says a voice coming from the shadows nearby.

Arthur whips around but finds nobody there. _That voice…it sounds familiar…_His eyes widen as he continues to think, _Could it be…him._

_- Flashback - Kirkland Home -_

_The crescent moon shines down very little light into the garage. _

_A seven year old Arthur is on his knees, crying. _

_Blood is spattered everywhere._

_In the middle of the room, a light-brown trench coat clad demon stands, his back to Arthur but his face is turned just enough to make out the cruel smile on his face, his amethyst eyes, and his silvery locks of hair. _

_-End Flashback-_

* * *

**The end for now… Another cliffy.**

**Hmmmm. who could that clad demon be?...No seriously, who doesn't know?"**

**And also isn't Alfred just the CUTEST as a little kid. And of course we can't forget the '_AWESOME_' Gilbert.**

**Be sure to tune in next time for the battle of AWESOMENESS between Alfred and Gilbert.**

**Please R&R.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AUTHOR COMMENTS HERE**

**WOOOT! Another chapter done :D**

**Sorry for the wait, writers block came back to visit and I just got done with one of my summer classes. **

**Thank you soooooo much Ai-Sama for all of your help ^_^**

**And thank you to all of you who are reading/faving/reviewing my story.**

**Ok, I know I have forgotten to put this on the last few chapters, so…**

*****Disclaimer*** I do NOT own these characters, if I did… well let's just say that life would be more interesting. ;)**

_Italicized _**are thoughts**.

_**Bold Italicized**_ are spells.

***Update as of 7/19 - I was informed of some edits that needed to be made.**

* * *

Chapter 6

- Ezra - village gate -

Alfred ran toward Gilbert to attack him, but the baby chick jumped up into his face and started to peck him. He backed down and jumped away.

"Nice job, Gilbird!" yelled Gilbert.

"Hey, ya know, it is easy to take out such a lil thing like that, right?" Alfred questioned.

"Well, he maybe little now, but not for long!" Gilbert responded and began to laugh.

"Huh?" Alfred shot a confused look at the self-proclaimed 'AWESOME' hunter.

Then suddenly, the chick started to chirp loudly and jump up and down. A glowing yellow-magic circle appeared underneath it and it began to grow.

"WHOA!" Alfred yelled as he looks up at the chick that is now as tall as the nearby buildings.

The chick chirps, loudly.

- Ezra - outskirts -

_Can it be…him. After all of this time. _Arthur began to look around for the owner of the voice only to still find nothing. About to pursue this further, Arthur is stopped by a loud sound coming from the other side of the village. When he turned, Arthur found himself seeing, over many of the houses, a very, very large baby chick. _What in the…_ Arthur began to think as he started to run in the direction of the creature.

- Ezra - village gate -

Alfred bounced off one of the buildings in order to get high enough to try to kick Gilbird and knock it off balance. Just as he almost reaches it, the chick brings up one of its wings and swats him away, almost like he was a bothersome fly.

Alfred flips around and is able to land on his feet. With unwavering confidence in his voice, Alfred comes back with, "Hey, is that all ya got, chicky? !"

Gilbert laughed, loudly, in return, "HA! Not even close, shorty! Gilbird! Squash him like the little, not-as-awesome-as-me, bug that he is!"

Gilbird chirped a confirmation, and started to run towards Alfred, pecking him whenever it got close enough to him.

Luckily, for Alfred, he was able to run or jump out of the chick's path before it got to him. "Oh, PLEASE! Like that huge thing is gonna catch me! I have way better moves and I'm totally way faster than it!"

The pattern of running, attacking, and dodging continued for a few more minutes. Rounding one of the corners, Arthur finally came in to see the fight, if one would call it that. Arthur is then stopped in his tracks and looks on at the fight with a dumbfounded look. _Is he fighting a chicken?_ was the only thought that was able to process through his mind. After a moment in his stupor, Arthur started to look around and sees near the village gate Gilbert. _OH, bloody hell, he is here too? !_

It was at this same moment that Gilbert noticed Arthur and shouted, "Hey, well if it isn't my drinking partner! Have you come to help me get my AWESOME title back? Or would you really think about helping that lil vamp, huh, Tinker Bell?"

Stomping closer to Gilbert, Arthur was about to retort with some profanities, but stopped when Alfred glomped his mid-section, nearly knocking him over. "Artie, you're back! Where did you go? Did you get lost? Why didn't you follow me? Hey, are you here to help me? Do you know that man? He was talking to you as if he knew you. Do you know why he says that he is awesome?" Alfred asked, words going almost too fast to understand.

"Oy, one question at a time! But before that, let's deal with this idiot first." Arthur said to Alfred. Then turning to Gilbert, "You're the one who placed the sleeping spell on this village, correct?"

"Why, yes I am. We aren't supposed to use magic in front of the normal folk so I just put them to sleep." Gilbert replied. "Now are you going to be standing in my way of getting my AWESOME title back, or will you be a good boy and not interfere?"

"As much as I would love to see Alfred get his arse handed to himself, I can't let you hurt him. I need his help with this mission." Arthur said.

"Oh well, suit yourself." And with that Gilbert begins to chant, another yellow magic circle appears underneath him. "_**I**_ _**call on earth to bind my spell; air to speed is travel well; bright as fire shall it glow; deep as tide of water flow…"**_

Alfred begins to charge towards Gilbert but is stopped by Gilbird pecking at him again.

Before Arthur was able to start a counter spell, but Gilbert was able to finish with,_** "count the elements four-fold; in the fifth the spell shall hold; no harm nor return to cause on me; as I do will, so mote it be,**_" leaving Arthur stunned and unable to move.

Alfred looks back at Arthur, "Hey are ya ok?"

"No! I'm not ok. I can't move…" Arthur tried to say through his gritting teeth.

Alfred then started to run towards Arthur to help but Gilbird was preventing him from doing so. "Get out of my way!" He shouted and then he runs over to the buildings behind him and runs up the walls a little in order to help him jump high enough to reach Gilbird's head. Bringing his fist back, Alfred punches the chick and it crashes down to the ground.

"AHHH! NO! GILBIRD!" Yelled the Albino man, as he rushes over to his pet bird, who is now shrinking down to is natural size due to its unconscious state. "You will pay for this, mini-vamp!"

About to prepare for another spell, Gilbert is then hit with a large gust of wind and blown into the front gate of the village.

"That is what you get for immobilizing me, you twit!" Arthur says in a huff.

"ARTIE! You're free! And that was so COOL! He just totally went whoosh and bang in to the wall." Alfred exclaimed, while laughing a little and coming up towards Arthur. "Ya gotta teach me that spell! PLEASE!"

"Maybe later, right now we have an idiot to take care of." Arthur calmly replied.

"OW! Damn you! That HURT!" Gilbert yelled at the top of his lungs. Wobbly, he gets up and tries to steady himself before preparing to launch a counter attack.

"Alfred, I want you to distract Gilbert. I need a minute to chant a spell that will, hopefully, stop him. Can you do that?" asked Arthur. "Don't let him complete another spell.

Nodding his head vigorously, Alfred exclaimed, "No problem!" With that Alfred went straight for Gilbert, while Arthur gathered his strength. Arthur closes his eyes and begins to recite the spell's chant.

Alfred gets within a few feet of where Gilbert is, when he hears, "_**RAPIER!**_" and a silver sword appears within the albino's hand. Alfred avoided many of the swings that went his way. Backing up a little bit, he tried to sprint and get behind Gilbert but instead he received a deep cut on his leg by the sword.

"AHH, ow!" Alfred shouted, wincing in pain, and backing away.

"HA! Serves you right for challenging the awesome me!" Gilbert gloated.

Hearing the commotion, Arthur opened his eyes a little to see the little vampire and his leg bleeding. _Alfred_, Arthur thought, with a little concern, but he continued his chant. _I need to finish it quickly._

Glaring at Gilbert and breathing a little heavily, Alfred shouted, "HEY! That hurt, ya jerk!"

Laughing manically, Gilbert yelled back, "Well, that's what you get for trying to steal my title! And I know that pure silver does quite a bit of damage to monsters like you, let's hope you last long enough to see me beat your partner."

"Whatever, dude. You will never be able to beat Arthur; he's too stubborn to be beaten by the likes of you. Of course, ya still need to get past me first!" Alfred exclaimed, as he was still trying to catch his breath.

Gilbert scoffed, and said "Tinker Bell over there? ! HA! Don't make me laugh! He may be good, but not as Awesome as me!"

With Gilbert in a rant, he didn't notice that Arthur had finished his spell. "For the last time, my name is not TINKER BELL! _**RAIN GALE!**_" and with that a storm of water and wind came down on Gilbert.

Not being able to move fast enough, Gilbert got caught in a watery tornado. Being lifted into the air, all Gilbert could do was scream, "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" After a minute, the spell wore off, letting go of Gilbert in midair. Coming down hard, the impact had rendered him unconscious.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Arthur thought, _Finally._ Walking over to the unconscious hunter, Arthur started chanting another spell. Ropes started to appear around Gilbert, wrapping around him securely.

Picking up the little chick, Alfred limped over to where Arthur was. "Did ya get him?" he asked, panting a little.

"Yes. Now all I have to do is send them back to headquarters. Let the superiors take care of them." Moving back a bit, he started chanting, _**"To to a different place I now refer, At the look of my face you now deter. Whether dark or light, Day or night. I banish thee from my sight."**_ With that a light green circle appeared under Gilbert. After a moment he disappeared.

Before the circle closed, Alfred chucked Gilbird into the circle, making him disappear as well. Finally, too tired to stand because of his injured leg, Alfred sat down on the ground with a groan.

Hearing the groan, Arthur turned around to see Alfred on the dirt ground, complexion very pale, almost a grey color, with blood oozing from his leg. Walking up to him quickly, Arthur bent down and asked, "Are you alright?"

Giving him a crooked smile, Alfred said, "Yeah." trying not to wince he continued, "Oh man. I totally forgot how painful silver could be."

Guilt ridden, Arthur put his hands on the cut and started chanting, _**"The gods and goddesses from above; Hear my plea; My skin or bones; Have wrath unknown; Make the hatred and pain that burn so much; They will no longer succeed." **_Seeing that the cut wasn't completely healed, Arthur stated in bewilderment, "I don't understand! Why didn't it work?"

Alfred just gave him a look that read 'Are-you-stupid'. Just sighing, he explained, "Silver affects vampires, almost like it does werewolves. It won't heal like normal, for me. It will take a lot of time. Unfortunately, it will scar. And me being cursed doesn't help either."

"Alright then," Arthur mumbled, and with that he became silent and started to search through the many pockets. "There it is…" grabbing his first aid kit, he pulled it out.

"WHOA! How'd you do that? !" exclaimed Alfred.

_Oh. Give me strength. _Arthur thought, as he shook his head with a sigh. "My coat is charmed, so I can hold many things within it."

"OH! Way cool!" Alfred smiled.

Praying for patience, Arthur just said, "Ok, now sit still while I bandage you up."

"WHA! NO! I don't wanna look like a mummy!" whined Alfred.

With a slight eye twitch, Arthur sighed again. _Is he really a centuries old vampire or a baby? _he thought. Clenching his teeth, he countered, "Just hold still! And be quiet for a moment!" _you little brat! _Was left unsaid, but hung in the air.

Just huffing, Alfred crossed his arms and said, "Fine." and looked away from Arthur, as to not to see the hurt in his eyes.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, Arthur had seen the flash of hurt in Alfred's eyes. Feeling guiltier, Arthur swallowed his pride and mumbled, "I'm sorry." while wrapping his leg.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you." Alfred asked sarcastically, still not looking at Arthur.

Swallowing again, Arthur said, a little louder, "I'm sorry."

Smirking now, Alfred asked, "Say that again. I couldn't quite hear you."

"I'M SORRY, YOU TWIT!" shouted Arthur.

Turning back around, Alfred had a big smile on his face. Jumping on Arthur, Alfred hugged him tightly, and exclaimed, "You're forgiven!"

"Ok. Ok. Get off me." mumbled Arthur, blushing a little. After a second Alfred let go. Standing up, after a second of hesitation, Arthur held out his hand to Alfred to take.

Eyes widening a little bit, Alfred grabbed the offered hand.

Pulling up the small, injured vampire, Arthur let go, after making sure Alfred wouldn't topple over.

"Thank you." said Alfred, smile in place.

Just nodding, Arthur said, "Now. I need to remove the spell that idiot hunter put over the town." Pulling out his star wand, Arthur started chanting, _**"**__**What is dark be filled with light, remove this spell from my sight." **_Beneath his feet, his light green magic circle appeared. Out of the circle ribbons of light started shooting out around the village. After a couple of seconds the village started to come to life. With all the lights fading, the magic circle vanished with a flash of light. "There. Now, let's head back to the Inn, and start asking questions." said Arthur. With that he started to walk back to where the Inn was, but seeing as Alfred wasn't with him, he looked back to see him limping his way after him. Sighing a little, Arthur went back to where Alfred was. Without thinking, Arthur picked him up, and held him in one arm.

"Hey! What are you doing? ! I can walk you know!" shouted Alfred.

"You're taking too long." was all Arthur said. With that they both headed back towards the Inn to start their investigation.

* * *

**Ok, I'm will be starting on the next chapter soon. It might take me a bit because of my last summer class; finals for it are next week. **

**Please read and review. Just don't call Arthur "Tinker Bell" or else he might come after you with his wand. LOL :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**OMG an update!**

**I'm SOOOO sorry this is way late. Both life and my brain decided not to cooperate with me.**

**Thank you soooooo much Ai-Sama for all of your help with my poor mental block and for beta-ing my story**

**And thank you to all of you who are reading/faving/reviewing my story.**

**As per a request, this chappy will be about Francis and Matthew and their little adventure. :)**

*****Disclaimer*** I do ****NOT ****own these characters. I just keep wishing for it, but it never seems to happen :(**

_Italicized _**are thoughts**.

**Oh and pardon my French accent, it isn't very good :/**

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Chapter 7

At the same time that Arthur and Alfred were in Ezra, Francis and Matthew were also headed south towards a mining town called Bastille.

Even before entering the town, Francis was opposed to go there. "MON DIU! IT'S FILTHY! MY BEAUTIFUL FIGURE WILL BE RUINED! I WILL NOT GO!" he had cried.

"Ah, but we have to, it is a part of a very important mission." a young Matthew tried to reason.

Matthew shot a pleading look at Francis, who in return, glomped him and said, "Oh, Mathieu, you look so adorable." A rose suddenly appeared out of thin air, into his hand, as Francis continued, "Since you insist, let us go there and find a way to defeat this horrible creature!" And with that, he grabbed the boy's hand and started to drag Matthew with him to Bastille.

- Bastille - Town Square -

After having to spend the last couple hours searching the town for any possible clue as to the whereabouts of the dangerous shadow demon or any possible creatures working for it, both Francis and Matthew come up with nothing to show for it, except for exhaustion and achy feet. They tried to speak to the miners and some of the townspeople, but no one was willing to talk to the outsiders; the townspeople tried to avoid the two like they had some sort of dangerous illness or something.

"OH! Coming to this filthy town was nothing but a waste of our precious time." Francis complained. "No one will talk with us, or give us any clue as to what that shadow could possibly want or what it is planning to do!" he continued, as he began to flail about to make his statement a little more dramatic.

"Please, try to calm down Francis." Matthew began, "I think we should try to just a little harder. Perhaps maybe we should find some ladies, and you could use your charm and they will talk to you?"

After that Francis gave him an odd, (possibly thoughtful) look. Matthew, taking that look as meaning that he said something wrong, began to fluster and whispered, "Oh, or maybe you feel it would be better to go a different town?"

"Mathieu, what a grand idea! Why did I not think of it before? !" Francis exclaimed and began to walk off, but not before grabbing Matthew and starting to drag the young looking boy along with him.

- Bastille -Junket's Tavern -

Standing outside the door, Francis and Matthew could hear many overlapping conversations, but once entering the building, all became silent. Coming in just a little more, many of the people started to get up and leave, staying as far away from the pair as they possibly could. Once they reached the bar, there was only the bartender left in the tavern.

"What can I do for you, sir?" The young woman asked, with a sideways glare at Francis. She had long, brown hair that is pulled into a braid, dark grey eyes, and pale skin. She is wearing a puffy kind of shirt that hides her petit figure, long black slacks, and black boots. She has a somewhat annoyed look on her face as she turns back to cleaning some of the glasses.

"Ah, mademoiselle, I was hoping you could answer a few questions," Francis said, pulling out another rose and turning on all the charm that he has.

Giving him a sort of bored look, she responded, "I would rather you don't. You should leave town as soon as possible, the townspeople don't trust many outsiders."

Matthew, who had finally been able to get into a chair so that he could see over the counter, cocked his head and asked "Why not, miss?"

The bartender turned to him, stopped for a moment, and then shouted "AWWWWWW! Well aren't you just the most adorable thing I have ever seen!" The woman then pulled Matthew over the counter and started to squeeze the poor boy as she hugged him and spun around. All the while, leaving Francis a little dumbfounded and slightly dejected.

Starting to get a little sick from being swung around in the tight hug, Matthew tries his hardest to say in his loudest voice which barely comes above a whisper, "Please, ma'am, we would like to ask you a few questions!"

The bartender came to a stop and put little Matthew on top of the counter. "Oh, please hun, call me Lacey. 'Ma'am' makes me sound old," Lacey said, with a smile.

Matthew cocked his head a little and gave her a closed eye'ed smile, "Ok, Miss Lacey."

Blushing, Lacey hugged him and started to spin once again, "AWWW! So adorable!"

"Ah… Miss Lacey…please…stop…" Mathew gasped for a breath, after she released him slightly, "… we would like to know why everyone in town doesn't like outsiders?" he tried to question, in a dazed state.

Lacey stopped once again, and replied, "Well, they just aren't sure who to trust. There have been a lot of people who have gone missing recently, especially in Agon forest that is just on the outskirts of town, and they just aren't sure what is causing it. If it is thieves on the road, or a monster? There just isn't anything left of those who went missing, so we don't know if they are dead or what."

"AH HA! Then perhaps, we should find out the culprit or culprits?" Francis asked, trying to get within the bartender's good graces.

"Oh, that would be a big help! But I don't see how someone like you could possibly help. And I don't expect you to bring this defenseless child with you." Lacey stated, as she hugged Matthew once again.

"Of course not, mademoiselle, I will find the thieves or monster that is taking away your beloved ones." Francis said as he bowed before her.

"Oh ok, well in that case, this little cutie can stay here with me while you are away." She declared, as Matthew shot Francis a pleading look of: _please don't leave me here with this crazy woman!_

"I apologize, Mathieu, please wait here till I'm done." Francis said, with a small, apologetic smile on his face. He started towards the door.

"Wha…wait, Fran…" Matthew started to say, but was cut off when Francis opened the door and left the tavern.

- Bastille - Outskirts -

Leaving the populated portion of town, where the monster was suppose to be located, Francis regrets having to leave the poor little vampire with such a headstrong, possibly crazy, woman but he figured that Matthew would be able to take care of himself for just a little while. The sun was getting close to setting, giving him possibly 2 hours of light before night hit. As he walked through the forest, the trees got denser and denser. Going slowly, looking around carefully to make sure nothing jumps out in front of him, Francis does not watch where he steps and plunges into a deep muddy puddle.

"AHHHH! No! My clothing, my beautiful clothing!" Francis cried out and flails his arms trying to get out of the puddle. Some of the bushes swish behind him, but he paid it no mind as he mourned his dirtied clothing.

He tries to clean himself off, but to no real avail, so then he just begins to dredge on again.

- Agon Forest - About 1.5 hours later -

Tired, Francis leans against a tree and looks towards the sky. He can still see a lot of clouds and little bit of sunlight but not much. His trek through the forest has proven uneventful since his unfortunate meeting with the muddy puddle. Starting up once again, he continued on the path leading him further away from the village. It was only moments later that he saw something dash across the path, and just a second later something followed closely behind.

_What was that?_ Francis thought. Going the same way that the figures went he sees….nothing. _Where did they go?_ He continued going the same general direction, hoping to find the figures, but after a few more minutes he still sees nothing. _Hmm. Now what?_ Taking a few more steps he hears a twig snap to the right of him and sees a tall, young man, who is clad in a long black trench coat, red pants that can barely be seen between the coat, and the large black boots that he wears. The man has blue eyes, blond spiky hair that is swept over to his right side of his head, and a small black hat that sits on the part of his hair.

_Who is that?_ he thought as took one step forward, making a small pebble move. The blond turned Francis's direction and then starts running off. Francis sighs and starts to follow man. Passing through many trees, Francis looses him.

"Merde!*" Francis swore. "Where did he go?" The Frenchman begins to look around some more, but it is getting harder now, as the sun has fallen below the horizon. After a few moments of more running, through a couple of trees, he sees another person. But this time it is a girl with platinum blond hair and a white bow in it. She wore a dark dress that went to her knees, and tall, dark boots.

"OH! Quelle une beauté!**" Francis exclaimed. The girl turned towards him for a moment but quickly turned back and started running.

"Wait, don't go." Francis pleaded, with a slightly damaged ego, and begins to chase after her. He weaves through the trees, keeping the girl within his line of sight at all times, so he doesn't lose her too.

She suddenly came to a stop in a small clearing. Slowing down, Francis stepped closer to the clearing but tries not to gain the attention of the girl. _It looks like there is someone else there too. Could it be the other person I saw earlier? _Francis thought. Up in the sky, the clouds that had obstructed any possible light had finally disappeared. The full moon was shining brilliantly, illuminating the clearing and allowing Francis to see that it was indeed the man he had seen earlier. As the man took a few steps forward towards the girl, he suddenly was replaced by a large wolfish creature that was blond in color. Beneath it, on the ground, was variously colored clothing, while atop its head was the little hat that was on the man. _…WAIT ONE MOMENT! Could it be? That man is a werewolf! Oh no, the girl!_ Francis saw that the werewolf was about to lunge towards the girl and immediately ran forward to protect her.

"You beast, you will not harm this girl!" shouted the Frenchman as the werewolf charged towards him and the young girl. Unbeknownst to Francis, the young girl had summoned herself a sword made from shadows and started to charge towards the werewolf, and will be willing to go through him regardless of his intentions to protect her.

* * *

Translation, courtesy of: http: / / translate. google .com/# (oh the wonders of google)

*Merde – French – Shit

** Quelle une beauté! – French – What a beauty!

* * *

**Oh nooooooo! What will happen to Francis? Will he be able to get out of the way? And what of poor Mattie's fate? Will he be stuck with the possibly crazy for cuteness, bartender? And what are the girls motives and just who is she and the werewolf?**

**Please be patient, school has started up again. It just never seems to end… **

**All reviews are appreciated. **


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